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Day 10 Spectrum

If you meet me you will quickly learn that I respond with “it depends” a lot. It’s not that I’m not trying to answer your question, but in some situations it really depends. The reason for this is that most things like on a spectrum or a scale. For me I see the world as a lot of things on spectrum interconnecting. Take politics, there is a pre-existing spectrum created by divided parties in the form of Democrats and Republicans. However, within this spectrum there are more and more issues on a spectrum. So while you might be a Democrat or a Republican compared to other people you will be more liberal or conservative, you will be more modern or more traditional, you will be literal or applicable in your understanding.

Even some of the laws that are created have various degrees of severity to them. There is a difference between killing someone in self defense, manslaughter, second degree murder, and first degree murder. While some people view morality as purely shades of black and white, spectrum allows for shades of gray. This isn’t an excuse to try and break laws, but rather to truly understand the situation involved. As I’ve stated previously, I’m not perfect and I’m biased, which means how I respond in certain situations will be different than other people.

This response and this ability to exist within a spectrum is what defines who we are. I like macaroni and cheese, however, if I had a choice of any meal in the world to eat, that probably wouldn’t be my go to choice. Without a spectrum I wouldn’t really be able to classify how much I like Mac and Cheese. Also there are variations of liking things as situations change such as when you get older you’re supposed to have a more sophisticated appreciation for food. You also might not be hungry for something that you eat all the time. Which there are a lot of college students and people just out of college that are quite familiar with the ramen noodle diet. However, most of those people when they can afford to eat other things eat much less ramen. Is this because it’s not as good? Or is it because they’ve had so much of it that they would just prefer something else for awhile?

One of the interesting things that is even more apparent about life as a spectrum is that it is already being viewed that way by psychology and other industries already. If you’ve ever taken a survey in your life then you’ve probably taken one of the scales that has I always do this, I sometimes do this, I’m indifferent, I rarely do this, or I never do this. This scale (a Likert scale for the correct term) puts your life on a spectrum. So for a great visualization of why life is a spectrum, considering taking every survey question ever asked and putting each question on one strip of paper then creating a large grid of sorts for your life. All the questions that somewhat overlap you would have to essentially overlap. Then you have all the questions that contradict each other which make some of the more meta based questions pull you certain ways on the spectrum of life. In the end though you would be left with a description/snapshot of your life that would appear very complicated but it would tell you who you are in that moment, but still allow for a dynamic change later. So the question is, would it be worth tracking all of your life choices just to find out who you really are even though it doesn’t necessarily tell you who you will be? It depends.